Category: From the web

Yascha Mounk interviewed by David Frum in the Atlantic, on populism, the trouble with illiberal democracies and America’s role. An excerpt: “The first is that we need to fight for an inclusive nationalism. This means that …

Muslims are projected to increase as a share of Europe’s population – even with no future migration. Read the full Pew Research report: http://www.pewforum.org/2017/11/29/europes-growing-muslim-population/

Democracy on its own does not consistently lower inequality, Walter Scheidel argues in the Atlantic, only catastrophe will. As “inequality has been written into the DNA of civilization ever since humans first settled down to …

Saltwater economics vs. freshwater economics: the battle is on. New Keynesian macroeconomists (saltwater) fail to acknowledge radical uncertainty in their models, and still can’t to explain why banks underprice risk worldwide. But has the other side …

Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s CEO, is doing things his own way. He’s running the company differently from his famous predecessors, Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, transforming not just the business strategy but the culture at Microsoft. And it …

The read of the week: an essay on why Francis Fukuyama is still so widely misunderstood and the high level of accuracy his predictions had, including the rise of Donald Trump…25 years ago. An appetizer: …

Fascinating piece by the great Nassim Nicholas Taleb (from last summer) on intolerance as a winning strategy (when in doubt, choose McDonald’s). It’s a long read, but worth every minute. It will teach you a …

Excellent piece by Yuval Levin from Commentary Magazine on the threat President Trump will pose to institutions, pluralism and – in the end – the American way of life. Full text Donald Trump’s insurgent takeover of …

American populism according to Niall Ferguson. In this recent talk he explains what is needed for ‘peak populism’ to get hold of America, as we see happening now. The context is set by four ingredients: …

Donald J. Trump has been elected President of the United States and will succeed Barack Obama early 2017. The campaign between the two flawed candidates was ugly, negative and intense. The outcome is nothing short of …

Reading this interview with J.D. Vance is one of the best ways to better understand the motives of Trump’s electorate. Vance is the eloquent and reasonable voice of conservative America. Here’s the full transcript of the interview: …

Understanding Trump by George Lakoff A lot has being written and spoken about Trump by intelligent and articulate commentators whose insights I respect. But as a longtime researcher in cognitive science and linguistics, I bring a …

Strong and insightful American Interest article by Jonathan Haidt on how moral psychology can help explain and reduce tensions between nationalism and globalism. What on earth is going on in the Western democracies? From the …

We dangerously underestimate the risk of populism in this ultra-democratic era. American democracy is in danger of extinction. In an erudite New York Magazine article, Andrew Sullivan links Plato’s warning on late-stage democracy, the problematic …

Obama’s foreign policy is widely criticized for being dangerously reluctant (drawing unimpressive red lines for instance) and too timid (America shouldn’t be leading ‘from behind’). In this Atlantic article the president speaks at length about …

The Rolling Stone long-read that caused quite some online stir, arguing that the the presidential election campaign is really just a badly acted, billion-dollar TV show, in which Donald Trump makes the winning point that …

Pretty lousy actually, as this short World Economic Forum article about our past attempts illustrates. To me, the historic examples also demonstrate that we tend to think in incremental changes (rolling house, flying postman) – …

This unique 75-year long Harvard research followed more than 700 men from teenager to old age, with one simple goal; to understand what makes them happy and healthy.The short answer is: good relationships keep us …